Speaker

Karen Nordell Pearson

Hope College

Chemistry

616-395-7217

nordellpearson@hope.edu

Nanoscience: A model for making interdisciplinary connections

With two grants from the NSF-Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education program, Lawrence University has launched an interdisciplinary Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (N&N) program connecting chemistry, biochemistry, geology, environmental science and physics. The N&N program supports interdisciplinary undergraduate research projects and the development of instructional materials for use in classrooms, laboratories and outreach programs. Themes that are explored in these projects and materials are the design, preparation and properties of nanoscale materials, and the tools used to characterize materials at the nanoscale. This presentation will feature experimental procedures for the preparation and characterization of several types of nanoparticles including gold, CdSe (2-10 nm diameters), and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)(200 – 400 nm diameters). Additional experiments with these nanoparticles include the preparation of inverse photonic crystals, the preparation of a colorimetric lead biosensor based on activated DNAzyme-linked gold nanoparticles and the environmetal remediation of chlorinated organics using bimetallic nanoparticles.